In recent years the world wide massive proliferation of mobile phone sales and their use in a myriad of environments, especially motor vehicles, has greatly increased safety concerns when vehicle drivers attempt to use their phones while driving. These concerns center on the obvious need for the vehicle driver to keep both hands on the steering wheel, rather than holding a mobile phone to their ear with one hand while steering in congested traffic conditions. More and more countries are passing laws that prohibit drivers from using mobile phones while they drive if both hands are not completely free to steer and engage steering column mounted controls such as lights, turn signals and windshield wipers, not to mention a host of dashboard mounted controls for such accessories as radio, CD and tape player as well as heating and air conditioning.
In response to these laws there now exist a host of mobile phone kits that allow drivers to secure their mobile phones to portable devices that hold the mobile phones separate from the drivers, usually in the region of the vehicle's dashboard. These mobile phone kits are frequently quite ingenious in their use of cigarette lighter power receptacles to power the phone and simultaneously charge the mobile phone battery. Some kits include a speakerphone and employ a microphone that captures the voice of the driver. Other kits connect the phone to the vehicle's FM radio and broadcast incoming messages over the radio loud speakers. Still others utilize handsets equipped with a microphone and ear phones. More recently the need for a hands-free mobile phone has been answered by incorporating a loud speaker in a vehicle headrest and mounting a microphone on the sun visor or on a flexible arm, which may be attached under the roof. European Patent EP0715 575 B1 granted Nov. 11, 1998 teaches the idea of incorporating a separate loud speaker in a vehicle headrest to be adjacent the user's ear. The loud speaker is provided with connections which are connected by wiring to the mobile phone. A microphone arranged on a flexible arm is rotatably mounted on the headrest.
As noted just above a majority of the hands-free kit type devices are designed to be installed on the center console or dashboard of a vehicle, which is located far from the head position of the driver. The ambient noise in a vehicle operating environment inherently reduces the voice pick-up and audio performance of this type of hands-free arrangement. The down side of this type of arrangement occurs when the other party to a conversation with a vehicle phone user complains of difficulty hearing. The usual response of the vehicle phone user is to shout in the direction of the dash-mounted, hands-free device. Rarely does shouting improve the clarity of the driver's voice. The listener at the other end of the call continues to express difficulty discerning the words of the vehicle phone user, which is generally followed by even louder shouting, coupled with a marked slowing down of speech.
Another hands-free approach, for use in conjunction with a vehicle headrest that is secured by means of pillars between the headrest and the top of the vehicle seat, employs a long mounting plate with bushings of different inner diameters. First the user selects a particular pair of bushings with the same inner diameter as that of the pillars that support the headrest. This is followed by the user removing the headrest with the integrally included pillars. The mounting bushings are then mounted upon the pillars followed by locating the pillars with matching bushings into the mounting plate prior to reinstalling the pillars into the top of the seat. A speaker and microphone, which are electrically coupled to the mobile phone, are then secured to the mounting plate as well.
Yet another hands-free approach that involves the use of a headrest support pillar calls for the use of a mounting plate that integrally includes a small swing arm that incorporates a speaker. The mounting plate involves the use of a single pillar and employs various sized bushings mounted in the plate to accommodate different diameter headrest pillar sizes. In this arrangement a microphone of the device is placed on the vehicle dashboard and both the speaker and microphone are electrically coupled to the mobile phone. The location of the microphone on the dashboard produces the same problem with the transmission of the vehicle driver's voice noted above.
It should be readily apparent that a hands-free speaker/microphone combination integrated into a headrest cannot be detached and moved from vehicle to vehicle, since currently there is no standardization in headrest/pillar support structure dimensions. Inherent in some of the just described approaches is unavoidable inconvenience: the need to have on hand a variety of different sized bushings and the necessity of removing the headrest and support pillars to install the hands-free arrangements.
The instant invention avoids all of the problems involved with the prior art approaches. It is remarkably simple and exceedingly expeditious to use universally with virtually any headrest support structure, irrespective of the exact structural nature of the headrest support structure, in almost all vehicles.